Image is of thousands of Cubans gathering in 2026 to honor José Martí.
After the Soviet Union fell, in the 1990s, Cuba entered a period (known as the Special Period) of extreme economic pressure, losing almost all of its international trade and fuel imports. Caloric intake almost halved, and electricity was mostly unavailable for much of the day. In response, Cuba undertook Option Zero, in which the country prioritized distributing resources to the most vulnerable, and rationed what little was available as fairly as possible. During this time, the threat of total collapse led to experiments and innovations, and, paradoxically to those on the outside, Cuba’s population came together under pressure, rather than shattering. The collective understanding that their suffering resulted from abroad rather than from internal inefficiencies and corruption meant that Cuba’s government, and thus their sovereignty, survived.
As the American Empire contracts in the wake of multipolarity and can now no longer tolerate sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere, we are seeing a return to the time of the Special Period, with the illegal blockade being dramatically worsened - among other measures, the US is preventing all fuel from entering the island, a strategy made more viable with Venezuela’s fuel exports now restricted. Imperialist supporters are predicting an imminent collapse, after which American mining corporations would descend on Cuba’s massive nickel and cobalt reserves.
While it’s absolutely possible that this time Cuba’s government could collapse, it’s important to note four things: 1) as noted, Cuba has been in a situation like this before and survived; 2) the geopolitical situation is quite different to how it was in the 1990s, with China and other powers increasing in power and influence compared to the USSR’s incompetent final leaders leaving the lane wide open to American exploitation; 3) there has been a concerted effort to transition to renewable energy sources recently, with solar panels being imported from China and making up an increasing amount of the energy supply; and 4) Cuba’s government is taking this threat very seriously, and beginning rationing efforts immediately.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
I stated it last time when the US was gearing up to bomb Iran, but I think that China mobilizing it’s military seemingly in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan would basically cause the US to abort any Iran operation. I don’t think we have the capability to fight those two wars plus whatever it is we are doing in Ukraine.
they aren’t and never will
Famous words said before the invasion of Ukraine.
I firmly believe that the US has switched their Taiwan policy from deterrence to deliberate provocation of war a la Ukraine. The US will not be directly involved in the fighting. That will be outsourced to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.
In other words, there would be minimal reaction from the US, and I don’t think it would affect the Iran situation.
Fighting in Taiwan, if it breaks out, cant be outsourced to Taiwan, Japan, SK or whatever combination of nations you can imagine. Without immediate and major US intervention Taiwan falls within weeks or at worst a couple of months and China brushes off anything any US dog can throw at them at the particular theater. Hell these countries cant throw anything of significance that or cant be placed in an american military base on their soil. Ukraine comparison make no sense. Ukraine is a huge ass country with a larger standing army and more hardware than most of EUrope combained, land borders with their allies and a frothing anti-russian nationalism and an abundance of poorer people that either want to be grinded to rince meat killing russians or can be forced to. There is no “Taiwan quagmire” to be had. Without US intervention China blockades Taiwan from energy inputs and if they are more vicious, food and medicine, and Taiwan folds relatively quickly. Way way way quicker than any economic or trade pain the US can inflict upon China. Japan or SK wont challenge the blockade on behalf of the US and literaly cant challenge the blockade it without the US actively doing so as well.
I made the Ukraine comparison as an example of intentional provocation of war. I don’t really expect Taiwan to become a quagmire itself. Their job will be to fire off volleys of missiles targeting the Chinese navy and high-value economic targets along the coastline.
On the other hand, I do think Japan and the Philippines could become quagmires. What is China going to do? Invade and/or blockade all of their zillions of little islands? And the US would likely provide logistical support for them despite the war, using the threat of nuclear escalation as a shield.
I also think there is a good chance that the US wants to provoke China into their own quagmire, but I don’t think the US wants that right now. Taiwan is still integral to chip manufacturing, and I don’t think the US is ready to support the logistical requirements necessary to accomplish their goals, which is why I think China mobilizing now would make the US pause what it’s doing. The US is not ready to have to fight on someone else’s timeline at the moment.
They’ve been trying to provoke China into it for years. It was really intense a year or two ago under Biden. Eased off slightly under Trump
Is there any chance of China actually launching an offensive on taiwan? Would it even be necessary?
I dunno much about taiwan politics but from what I heard, anti china politics are losing power. even current dpp government supporters think curent government is too aggresive against china and dpp seems to lose to more pro-china party kmt next election. I don’t think china will do any military act before next election
Right now? No. But there are opportunities that will present themselves in the coming years.
Most likely not anytime soon. I also think they would be more inclined to do some sort of embargo and/or blockade first to show Taiwan what life without the mainland is actually like.
I have said no until today, but with Japan wanting to remilitarise I would no longer rule it out as something China would do in preparation for conflict with Japan.
How did I forget japan electing a fashie that wants to kamikaze the entire country against china smh
I don’t think she’s up for it, you guys aren’t taking into account that the US is telling countries what to do, or else they get the stick. Trump recently said SK wasn’t doing their part against China. This is a CLEAR tell that these countries aren’t acting on their own accord.
I don’t think China will allow them to remilitarise. I believe China would go to war with Japan pre-emptively to stop it. And before they do that, they would want to secure Taiwan first.
I don’t think this is even a controversial take, there is NO WAY China is allowing Japan to build up again into the kind of country that did what it did to China last time. They absolutely will not allow it.
Japan is militarized. the constitution is a rag for the US to wipe its ass with.
and if i had a grain for every militaristic escalation against China the CPC did not answer with war i’d have like, 4 heaps by now
Purchasing 147 * F35s is in a completely different league to what Japan currently is and that’s just as a start.
besides that they’re not going to receive that anywhere near on schedule
they already have 47, plus 200 f15s, and 80 f16s. that’s a heap of modern fightercraft
i appreciate the fashy PM is expanding the “JDF” but we should include the context that the “JDF” has had a leading military arsenal for decades, one the CPC has been accounting for for decades.
There is always a chance, yes. Especially if Taiwan or the United States make any concrete moves against the One China policy. The PRC is mostly content with the status quo regarding Taiwan, but if the status quo changes (which seems to have in recent months!) that likelihood goes up.
That is true. Hoping it doesn’t get to that if anything the libs are gonna be insufferable about it.